Late Thursday afternoon after a light practice in the field house, we packed up the bus and left a cold and very snowy Kent, Ohio.

Long bus trips can either be a lot of fun, or they can be miserable. But it seems like our guys are always finding something to keep themselves busy, whether it is playing cards in the back; listening to music or watching whatever movie is playing at the time.

I, on the other hand, entertain myself by challenging Coach Daeley to a game of Connect Four. This bitter rivalry started last season. He pretty much owned me all last year, so there has been a lot of trash talking going on since I arrived on campus in August. I was looking forward to a little revenge! But Coach Daeley silenced all talk by dominating me for a good hour. I finally gave up and went back to my seat to watch the end of “We are Marshall.”

After a seven-hour trip we arrived in Winston-Salem. We got off the bus at our hotel and went to our rooms for the rest of the night. We were just hours away from playing our first game of the season.

The Flashes started the opening game of the season the right way by scoring first. But the Deacons fought right back and answered with three runs in their first at-bat. The game went back and forth all the way until the ninth inning; we had a 7-5 lead and it felt like we were going to pull this one out. But three walks and a couple of infield hits later, the Deacons were celebrating on the field. The final score was 8-7, the Flashes lost a heart breaker. But I thought for being our first game and for it being the first time we have been outside all year, we played really well. Defensively we were solid, and we swung the bats well enough to keep us in the game.

Saturday's game started out rough as the Deacons took a commanding 5-0 lead. We battled back to within one, but in the end, the Deacons' offense was just too much. They scored three more runs to make the final score 8-4.

After two hard losses the Flashes, were anxious to get their first win of the season on Sunday. It was a beautiful day, and it just felt like it was going to be a good day for the team.

Wake Forest had other ideas; they once against jumped out to an early 7-0 lead. Through the first five innings, we couldn’t get anything started, but finally we got a couple of base hits and suddenly we were on the board. We fought hard, scoring six runs in three innings making the score 8-6. Wake brought in their highly regarded closer, Ben Hunter, who put us away "1, 2, 3" and the Flashes left Winston-Salem without a win.

Starting 0-3 was not the way we wanted to open the season. But there were some positives that came out of the weekend. Offensively, we hit the ball really well and gave ourselves a chance to be in every game, defensively we made all the routine plays and sophomore Chris Tremblay and redshirt sophomore Greg Rohan highlighted the defensive effort with two spectacular diving plays.

Leaving Winston-Salem without a win made the bus ride home a little less enjoyable. But we have a week of practice to figure things out and get ourselves ready to play the University of Florida next weekend.

Brad Winter

(photo courtesy of Kent State Media Relations Office)